Canadian cleric ‘ready to be martyred’ as he sets two-day deadline for end of ‘corrupt’ Pakistani government

Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, the Pakistani-Canadian cleric whose supporters have overrun the government quarter of Islamabad in a protest against corruption, on Monday issued a darkly mysterious ultimatum.

Waving a burial shroud, Mr. Qadri, 63, who has twice left a quiet life of retirement near Toronto for the roiling cauldron of Pakistani politics, set a 48-hour deadline for the resignation of Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister. Failing that, Mr. Qadri told thousands of supporters his own life could be the price.

“I am giving this deadline today as I am ready to be martyred and I have taken the last bath today,” Mr. Qadri said in front of Pakistan’s parliament, raising fears protestors would storm the building, despite its military guard.

“I’m calling on people from across the country to come out and reject this corrupt and undemocratic government,” he told the Sunday Times.

“People saw what we could do before. This time we will not stop until the government is removed,” Mr. Qadri said, referring to the march he led last year, which ended with the arrest of the previous prime minister, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.

It was a bold threat that sets Mr. Qadri distinctly apart from Imran Khan, his primary ally in these quickly escalating protests. Mr. Khan, the former playboy cricket star, often compares politics to sports, and has drawn fewer supporters than Mr. Qadri, despite his strong showing in last year’s elections, which he claims were rigged. Last Friday, 34 parliamentarians under Mr. Khan’s leadership resigned.

Mr. Qadri, on the other hand, is not an elected leader, more of a progressive spiritual authority from the mystical Sufi branch of Islam, and it is his perceived closeness to Pakistan’s powerful military that has bolstered his authority as a power broker.

As the two leaders stand at the gates of government, following violent clashes with police in Lahore that only heightened the popular outrage, Mr. Qadri’s condemnation of elitist corruption has carried just as much weight as Mr. Khan’s complaints of vote rigging.

Barely a year after the first transfer of power between democratically elected governments in Pakistan’s independent modern history, Pakistanis are frustrated at Mr. Sharif’s rule, his failure to conquer the energy crisis, and his pursuit of General Pervez Musharraf in what the Financial Times said “looks like a personal vendetta.”

Mr. Qadri has compared the moment to the Arab Spring. With his slogan that Pakistan’s “lawmakers are lawbreakers,” he returned to Pakistan in June, publicly declaring the government would not survive.

Almost immediately, police and military stormed his headquarters in a confrontation that left 12 people dead and 80 injured, one of the rare moments of outright violence in his campaign, which he calls “an intellectual and spiritual war against extremism and terrorism.”

In 1981, Mr. Qadri founded an educational movement, becoming well known in Pakistan through televised sermons, in which he placed a rare emphasis on female equality. He went on to launch Pakistan Popular Movement, the lone religious party to back the government’s decision to support the Afghan War. He opposed the strict theocratic visions of Wahhabism and Deobandism, and their expansion among Pakistan’s poor.

A former associate of the late Benazir Bhutto, Mr. Qadri has lived in Canada since 2006 with his wife and five children.

In Canada, he likewise promoted a moderate, inclusive Islam, arguing for example against divided prayer spaces.

In 2007, an attack on an Urdu-language journalist in Mississauga, Ont., was said to have been in retaliation for criticism of Mr. Qadri, although no charges were laid.

He returned to Pakistan in late 2012, and as The Associated Press described it, “became a significant political force almost overnight.”

“Islam teaches democracy, Islam teaches human rights, Islam defends the rights of minorities. Islam does not believe in discrimination. So my interpretation of Islam is a bit different from the mullahs. I feel that the teachings of Islam creates a moderate, progressive, free and democratic society, free of every kind of extremism and terrorism. This is my interpretation of Islam and what I want to see here,” Mr. Qadri told National Post reporter Rubab Abid in an interview during last year’s protests.

“In Pakistan we do not have effective democracy, we have electoral authoritarianism. The elections here are just a tool, to win elections by hook-and-crook, manipulation and corruption,” he said.

He has advocated a role for the army in a transfer of political power, and is seen as close to Pakistan’s generals, even doing their bidding, with rumours of secret allegiances in London and Washington that he has denied. Canada, as his adopted home, serves as more of an inspiration.

“If anyone asks, ‘Where on Earth is heaven?’ I would say that Canadian society is our heaven,” he told the Post. “I want the same kind of reflection in Pakistan. It is impossible to create the same kinds of circumstances, but I want to put the society of Pakistan at least in the same direction that we see in Canada.”